


Just Another Night

by Setcheti



Series: Ghostbusters: The M7 Version [3]
Category: Ghostbusters - All Media Types, The Magnificent Seven (TV)
Genre: Additional Warnings Apply, Aftermath, Alternate Universe - Fusion, Gen, September 11 Attacks, Survivor Guilt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-30
Updated: 2015-04-30
Packaged: 2018-03-25 15:19:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,034
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3815302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Setcheti/pseuds/Setcheti
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dinner that night was about as normal as it could get – or at least, as normal as it had been since September.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Another Night

**Author's Note:**

> For additional warnings regarding this story arc, see author's note on [Just Another Afternoon](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3815296).

Dinner that night was about as normal as it could get – or at least, as normal as it had been since September.  Vin had to laughingly remind Chris to keep eating several times as the physicist kept mentally wandering off, turning their latest batch of problems over in his mind.  Ezra, on the other hand, was completely fixated on his food even though he wasn’t actually eating any of it.  Just a day ago that would have irritated Chris, but now he understood and kept the others from bothering the troubled psychologist.  Hopefully after tonight they could start getting things back to normal for Ezra as well. 

As soon as everyone was done eating – or pretending to eat – Chris ordered the table cleared and everyone into the family room for the meeting.  Everyone who was there, that was; he’d called the hospital and left word that Nathan was needed at the firehouse ASAP, but so far the biochemist was a no-show.  Larabee decided not to wait for him.  “Boys, something happened this afternoon,” he said, addressing Buck, JD and Josiah.  “Today Vin and I got to see what all those readings we’ve been taking over at the disaster site mean.”  He stopped the torrent of excited questions with an upraised hand.  “And now we also know _exactly_ what happened to Ezra, and hopefully that will give us a better shot at fixing it.” 

Everyone’s eyes immediately went to the psychologist, who was slouched in a corner of the couch with his eyes fixed on the floor.  Buck frowned and looked back at Chris.  “So what’s the problem?” 

“We have more than one,” was the answer.  “But they kind of all go together.  First off, I think everyone knows that Nathan is considering leaving the business to go work at the hospital, and for the record if he doesn’t show back up here tonight I’ll tear up his contract with Ghostbusters, Inc. myself.” 

Josiah stiffened.  “Chris…” 

“No.”  Larabee didn’t look angry, just decisive.  “Dr. Jackson is making his own decision.  If he’s not committed to being here, to being a part of this team, I’m not asking him to stay.” 

“This all hit him really hard,” the former priest tried to defend his absent friend.  “All that time we spent at ground zero, all the pain and tragedy we saw down there, the futility of it all…” 

“There’s a perfectly good psychologist right here that he could talk it out with,” Vin interrupted.  “He just won’t.” 

Josiah dropped his eyes.  “I know Brother Ezra wants to help,” he admitted quietly.  “But he can’t fully understand what we went through, he wasn’t there.” 

Chris saw Ezra twitch slightly and that tiny, involuntary reaction decided him; talking could wait.  He walked over to stand beside Ezra and ordered Josiah, “Take his hand.”  Nobody questioned Chris Larabee when he used that tone of voice; Josiah picked up the limp hand that had been lying beside him on the couch, his eyebrows rising when he felt the way it was trembling.  Then Chris held out his own hand to the psychologist.  “Ezra.”

Green eyes looked up at him, filled with torment, pleading.  “Chris…” 

“They need to know, Ezra.”  The command was gentle but clear.  “This is the only way they’ll understand.”  After a moment’s hesitation, Ezra reached up to put his other hand into the grasp of the one in front of him. 

Josiah’s yell shook the windows and startled Buck and JD to their feet.  Chris’s knees buckled but Vin was there to steady him and to yank his hand away from Ezra’s.  Ezra pulled his own hand out of Josiah’s grasp and curled in on himself even more, closing his eyes.  The former preacher just stared at him in horror, and then at Chris.  “You knew…” 

“We found out this afternoon, by accident,” Vin answered him.  “Think you’d have to agree, Preacher, it’s all of us that didn’t really understand.” 

Buck looked from Josiah to Chris to Ezra and his eyes narrowed.  Circling around the couch with JD in his wake, he dropped to one knee beside the psychologist.  “Ez?  Pard, does it hurt you to do this?” 

Ezra shook his head without opening his eyes.  “Makes him tired after a bit,” Vin elaborated.  “Problem is that he don’t want to hurt us, and what he’s listenin’ to can’t help but do that.” 

“In more ways than one,” Josiah put in heavily.  “Hurts me to know he’s been going through… _that_ all this time and we haven’t done anything but tell him he’ll get used to it.”  He locked eyes with Chris.  “I understand now, Chris, and I won’t say another word.  You do what you have to do.” 

“I’d planned on it.”  Larabee nodded to Buck.  “Go ahead, you won’t understand until you do.” 

Buck and JD each took one of Ezra’s hands at the same time.  Buck let loose a startled exclamation, lost his balance and fell backwards onto his rear end, losing contact with Ezra when he did so.  “How in God’s name…!  JD, are you all right?” 

JD was absolutely white, but he hadn’t let go.  His head whipped around suddenly, tracking something none of the others could see – except Ezra, who followed it lazily with his own eyes but didn’t seem concerned.  “It was moving so fast, where do you think it’s going?” the younger man asked tremulously. 

“It just broke away from the mass,” was the psychologist’s unruffled answer.  “You might liken it to a spacecraft breaking free of the planet’s gravitational field, they apparently must attain sufficient velocity to escape.” 

Ezra started to slide his hand out of JD’s, but the younger man tightened his grip.  “You’ve been watching them, studying them?” 

A soft snort.   “I’ve had little choice – and I thought my observations might prove some benefit if it ever became necessary for all of you to have further interaction with the mass.” 

“For all of _us_ ,” Vin corrected softly.  “You’re still a Ghostbuster, Ezra.” 

“That may still be a debatable issue…” 

“I say it’s not, and what I say goes.”  Chris was doing the correcting now.  He looked around at his team and nodded, pleased with what he saw.  “You’re a part of us, a part of our family, and that hasn’t changed.  Now we just need to figure out where to go from here…” 

“They’ve heard it, they need to see it,” Vin suggested with a smile.  “Didn’t you say it was better to look at at night, Ez?” 

“I wouldn’t say better,” Ezra replied unhappily.  “More visible, certainly.”

“I want to see.”  JD tugged at the hand he was holding, urging the reluctant psychologist to his feet.  “The roof, right?  That would be the best place.  We should all go take a look, and then,” he shifted his grip, moving his hand to the psychologist’s shoulder.  “And then you need to get some rest, Ez, and Buck and I will figure out how to block that noise for you.” 

The two of them left the room, and the remaining four men looked at each other and grinned, even Josiah.  “Damned if that boy doesn’t surprise me every time,” Buck said proudly.  “Damned if Ezra doesn’t too.” 

“Maybe we need to stop being surprised,” Chris told him, holding out a hand to help him up.  “So let’s go get the last one of the night over with and go from there.” 

 

Nathan came home to what looked and sounded like an empty firehouse.  At first he was afraid the others had been called out on a bust, but all the vehicles were still in the garage.  Maybe someone had gotten hurt, gotten sick?  No, he would have heard about it at wo…at the hospital for sure.  He really was starting to think of it as work, not just pitching in anymore, and he was also starting to think that might not be a bad thing.  At least at the hospital he felt like he was making a difference and he was surrounded by people who felt the same, people whose priorities were in the right place. 

He still didn’t think they should have had a birthday party for JD.  Nathan didn’t blame the young mathematician or really even the other Ghostbusters, but he still didn’t think that kind of celebration had been right under the circumstances.  And it hadn’t been right for one of them to stay here to take care of Ezra, either, not when everyone was needed so desperately elsewhere.  He’d been ready to suggest they leave the psychologist at Bellevue when Chris had made his speech about it being just as important to take care of their own, and after that the biochemist hadn’t thought his idea would be too well received so he’d kept his mouth shut. 

Nathan had wondered more than once if that had been the wrong decision.  Had Chris called him back to headquarters because something had happened with Ezra?  The man had tried to kill himself once already, it could have happened again.  He spotted the crumpled note on Nettie’s desk and picked it up, frowning worriedly when he saw what was written there.  Oh, _that_ probably hadn’t gone over well, another possible explanation for the summons he’d received… 

The sound of a throat clearing startled him out of his thoughts; Chris was standing on the stairs, not looking very happy.  “Where have you been, Dr. Jackson?  I left word for you to get back here hours ago.” 

Nope, hadn’t gone over well at all.  Nathan started to explain that they’d been busy in the lab but decided against it.  “What’s going on, Chris?  Is everyone okay?” 

“Everyone’s fine.”  Chris didn’t soften any.  “Let me guess, they needed you and you couldn’t get away.” 

“Pretty much, yeah.”   The biochemist dropped the note back on the desk.  “So what’s going on?” 

“If you’d been here, you’d know.”  Larabee turned around and started back up the stairs.  “Come on.” 

Nathan followed him upstairs, and was surprised when they didn’t stop at either the kitchen or the family room but kept on going up to the bunkroom, and then up the final flight of stairs that led to the roof.  The night was clear and cold and still, and from five stories up it was remarkably quiet.  “Chris?” 

“You missed the meeting – and dinner, by the way,” the physicist told him.  His turquoise eyes were colder than the chill breeze plucking at their clothes.  “You’re going to have to make a decision tonight, Jackson; you’re either a part of this team or you aren’t.  And after you make your decision, I’ll make mine.” 

And with that he turned and walked away, and after a moment’s hesitation Nathan went with him.  The others were standing clustered around Ezra on the far side of the roof, all looking out over the city in the direction of the disaster site.  Chris grabbed Nathan’s arm and pulled him into the tight little semicircle to stand beside Buck.  The biochemist’s eyebrows rose when he saw that Buck was holding Ezra’s hand.  “How you holding up,?” the engineer asked the psychologist gently, ignoring Nathan like he wasn’t even there. 

“Fine,” came the shaky answer.  Ezra’s eyes were still fixed on the darkness – no, Nathan suddenly realized, on the empty space where the Trade Center had once stood.  “I’m fine.” 

“Pull the other one.”  Buck patted the smaller man on the shoulder with his free hand.  “We’re going to fix this for you, Ez, it’s all going to work out.  I’m gonna trade off with Vin now, okay?” 

Ezra shuddered visibly.  “No…” 

“Yes,” Vin told him, catching hold of the hand on his side as soon as Buck had let go of the other.  “There’s got to be an end to this, pard; we need to be a team again and this is the only way to make that happen.” 

Nathan was getting an idea of what the others thought they were doing, but he couldn't believe they were taking it this far. They were up on the roof! In the middle of the night, holding hands!  He knew they wanted to make Ezra feel more a part of the group, but the man was just going to have to come to terms with the fact that he hadn't been a part of the tragedy that had hit the city and couldn't possibly understand. Nathan had privately wondered more than a few times over the past weeks if the psychologist's collapse had actually been a nervous breakdown brought on by his inability to deal with the incident.  _I should have spoken up before, when it started_ , he chastised himself.  _The man should be in the hospital getting some real help, not five stories up in the middle of the night with his friends practicing amateur psychology on him. For Ezra’s sake, I’ve got to put a stop to this_.  Nathan opened his mouth to make them all face reality… 

…And then Buck grabbed his hand and shoved it into Ezra's.  And Nathan’s world exploded. 

Suddenly the night wasn’t dark any more; there was a massive, glowing cloud of spirits hovering ominously over the downed Trade Center like some sort of otherworldly mushroom cloud, spitting ghosts in every direction. But what hurt more was the _noise_. Screaming, moaning, howling - the cacophony was everywhere, inside his head, pulsing behind his eyes, vibrating along his very bones... 

And then Ezra let go of his hand. Nathan fell to his knees and clutched his head, gasping.  He vaguely heard Chris say, "I think he understands now.  You okay, Vin?" 

“Will be.”    Tanner sounded breathless and a little shaky.  “Thought it might be easier the second time around, guess that’s what I get for thinkin’.  Ez?”

“Think we just wore him out,” Josiah rumbled softly.  “No, brother, I don’t need any help.  He doesn’t weigh anything at all anymore.” 

Nathan’s head jerked up; Josiah was getting to his feet, cradling Ezra in his arms like a child.  He saw the psychologist’s hand push futilely at the bigger man’s chest.  “I…can walk.  Don’t have to…” 

“I want to,” Josiah contradicted with a smile.  “And we know you’d try to walk, but you’d most likely fall down the stairs.  Go to sleep, Ezra.  Tomorrow will be a brand new day, for all of us.”  

His light blue eyes met Nathan’s wide dark ones as he made the promise, and then he turned away and made for the stairs with JD running ahead of him to get the door.  Nathan started to follow but found his way blocked by the remaining three men.  “Not just yet,” Chris told him.  “We still have a thing or two to discuss.” 

Nathan shivered – and not just because of the wind.  “If this is about that message from the hospital I can explain…” 

“I’m sure you can,” Larabee cut him off.  “But as far as I’m concerned them being gung-ho to hire you away from us is just the tip of the iceberg here.  Why don’t you start by telling me just when you decided the job we do isn’t important?” 

Vin  and Buck didn’t look surprised by the question, but Nathan’s mouth dropped open; he didn’t think he’d been that obvious about what he was feeling lately.  He sighed.  “It’s not that I think there’s anything wrong with Ghostbusting, but after what happened…”  He looked over his shoulder at the empty space in the darkness.  “What we’ve been doing is all well and good, but…but well, everything that’s happened kind of made me straighten out my priorities.” 

“So you’re saying ours aren’t straight, is that it?” Vin observed coldly.  “We’re just a bunch of selfish bastards now?” 

“I didn’t say that…” 

“You didn’t need to – it’s been coming through loud and clear,” Buck told him disgustedly.  “You still have your nose out of joint because we celebrated the kid’s birthday, don’t you?  And because we didn’t pack Ez off to the loony bin so everyone could go help out downtown.”  He snorted at the biochemist’s renewed amazement.  “I saw the look on your face when Chris said we’d take turns staying here with him, didn’t you ever wonder why you never had to stick around by yourself?  We were pretty sure you’d be calling the men in white coats as soon as we were out the door.” 

“Don’t try to deny it,” Chris said with a grimace as it looked like Nathan was about to do just that.  “You aren’t exactly good at hiding how you feel, Jackson.  But no matter how crooked you’ve got your head screwed on right now, even you should be able to see that we were able to help this city a lot because of what we do for a living, because of the research we’ve pioneered to keep this business going.  The PKE meters we use to track ghosts found people buried in the rubble, the throwers we use to blast demons melted through steel and concrete that couldn’t be reached by normal excavation equipment.  And while you were down at the hospital feeling so noble for doing nothing more than helping out in the lab, the man you wanted to pack off to Bellevue was sitting here listening to the screams of every person we couldn’t save and still trying to figure out how to help all of _us_ get through this intact.”  He fixed his patented glare on the biochemist.  “You’ve heard what he hears  now, think you could have held it together half as well as he did?” 

Nathan had to shake his head.  “I…I didn’t know.  That it was like that for him, I didn’t know.” 

“None of us did,” Vin observed quietly.  “Not until today.” 

“And we’re all feelin’ guilty about it,” Buck put in.  “All of us have told him at least once before today that he’d just have to get used to it.  Now we know better.” 

“You have any ideas about that, Buck?” Chris wanted to know.  “There’s got to be a way…” 

“Yeah, there does.”  The engineer’s pleasant, open face hardened with determination.  “And the kid and I will find it, don’t you worry.  I’ve got an idea or two already.” 

“Thought you might.”   Chris’ pleased expression became grim again when he turned his turquoise gaze back on Nathan.  “Well, what about you?  If the hospital is what you think you want I’m not going to argue with you.” 

“Half and hour ago it might have been.” Nathan admitted honestly, casting another look back over his shoulder.  “Now that I know a little more about what’s going on, though, things are looking a little different to me.” 

“Yep.”   Chris sighed.  “You’re a good man, Nathan, and I don’t want to lose you…but if you’re staying there’ll be some conditions." 

The biochemist nodded slowly; it was what he’d expected.  “I know I owe Ezra an apology.” 

Larabee smiled slightly.  “That would be nice of you, but that wasn’t one of them.  No, if you’re going to stay with Ghostbusters, Inc. I’m going to have to insist that you quit working at the hospital.  No more moonlighting at all, not even volunteer work.” 

Nathan had expected that too, so he swallowed it without comment even though it didn’t go down too easily.  “Okay.” 

“And you have to get some help, I’ll want you to see someone for at least a month.”  The look of shock that produced was almost comical, but Chris didn’t smile this time.  “Ezra tried, but he already told us that he wasn’t able to help you so it’ll have to be someone else.  I think if you ask him he’d probably be able to suggest someone you’d be comfortable with.” 

That went without saying; professionally speaking, Ezra had a real bee in his bonnet when it came to matching a patient with the right therapist.  But still… “What if I’m not comfortable with the whole idea?” Nathan wanted to know.  “Now that I understand things better…” 

“Thought one of the things you understood was that what I say goes,” Chris interrupted mildly.  “Take it or leave it is the only option you’ve got.” 

Nathan still didn’t like it…but he took it.  He still wasn’t sure about everything and his conscience was still pushing him to do something ‘useful’, but the brief contact with the howling madness hovering over the city had put cracks in his self-assurance.  Through one of those cracks he could catch a glimpse of what might have been the hospital manipulating him, through another a flash of himself coming across as self-righteous when he’d thought he was just being honest.  Those images would need to be explored and clarified, and much as he hated to admit it a therapist might be able to help him do that. 

He followed the other three men down off the roof but stopped at the bunkroom while they continued on downstairs.  Ezra was in bed, asleep.  Nathan walked in a little farther.  Most of the psychologist’s clothes were folded into a neat pile on top of his nightstand and there was an extra blanket on the bed.  Even from here Ezra looked worn out.  Nathan sighed and walked right up to the bed so he could look down at it’s occupant.  Vin had said they’d only found out today and the biochemist had to wonder how – he knew without having to ask that Ezra hadn’t told them.  Holding hands had triggered the connection, maybe it had been an accident?  That would make sense, but that would also mean that Ezra could do more than just see and hear ghosts… 

Nathan may have been a skeptic, but he was also a Ghostbuster and had a healthy measure of scientific curiosity in his own right when it came to things he didn’t understand.  He didn’t think Ezra had always been able to ‘share’ his special ability because they would have noticed it before, so did that mean that the disaster had triggered something?  Or was it just because of the magnitude of what was going on, a kind of unconscious overflow?  The biochemist bit his lip.  If the contact-triggered effect was being controlled by Ezra’s conscious mind then right now a person should be able to touch him all they wanted to and not see or hear a thing. 

The echo of those horrible screams was a fearful shiver that ran up Nathan’s spine as he reached underneath the blankets to take Ezra’s hand. 

The room lit up…but thankfully stayed silent.  A medium-sized ghost was hovering over the bed, its cause of death obvious from its appearance, and when it realized Nathan could see it it howled silently at him and then darted off.  Other spirits whizzed through the room, some stopping, some circling, some just going straight through like commuters on a freeway.  Something small and blue with sharp-looking teeth was cowering in one corner of the ceiling and watching Nathan’s every move with unnerving intensity.  He shook himself and let go of Ezra’s hand, then pressed two fingers to the man’s neck to check his pulse and found it a bit fast.  Overflow, then, but the transmission of it to someone else was manifesting physically as though he’d exerted himself.  Which meant that Ezra’s brain was trying to deal with the bombardment of unnatural stimuli by telling his body it was something else and in the process causing a cumulative chemical imbalance…

Nathan quickly tucked the blankets in a little tighter around his friend and hurried out of the room.  They needed to change Ezra’s medication before the problem got any worse, and he was betting that once they did the contact-transmission problem would gradually fade away.  And once Buck and JD had something working to block the noise he could back down the dosage in stages… 

Chris and Vin looked up as they saw Nathan dart past the family room making a beeline for the lab and then a moment later heard a triumphant whoop from Buck and a cheer from JD.  The two men grinned at each other; things were getting back to normal already. 


End file.
